Police Officer Quarterly Strength Statistics Scotland

Police officer numbers are 1,022 higher than at 31 March 2007.

Scotland’s Chief Statistician today published statistics on Police Officer Quarterly Strength, which gives the number of full-time equivalent police officers employed by Police Scotland.

The key findings of the statistics are:

• There were 17,256 full-time equivalent (FTE) police officers in Scotland on 31 March 2017.

• This is an increase of 1,022 FTE police officers (+6.3%) from the 16,234 FTE police officers recorded at 31 March 2007.

• Police officer numbers have decreased by 60 FTE officers in the last year from 31 March 2016 but are unchanged in the last quarter from 31 December 2016.

• The figures released today were produced by professionally independent statistical staff free from any political interference, in accordance with professional standards set out in the Code of Practice for Official Statistics.

Background

The full statistical publication.

The quarterly bulletin reports the number of police officers employed by Police Scotland as at 31 March 2017. Further information on Crime and Justice statistics. 

Official statistics are produced by professionally independent statistical staff – more information on the standards of official statistics in Scotland can be accessed here.